Raid on Clark's Landing
by Luke Danger
Summary: Shortly after the destruction of the Reapers and the Normandy's return to known space, the crew have been given extended leave as the ship needed extensive repairs. Making a pit stop at a small colony while en route to Eden Prime, Ashley, James, and Liara find themselves defending it from a pirate raid. A one-shot.


**Clark's Landing (Colonial Capital)**

"Lieutenant-Commander Williams, your shuttle will be good to launch in twenty."

Ashley Williams looked up from the datapad she was reading and nodded to the colonial tech. "Thank you." The tech gave a brief salute and walked out of the waiting room they were in, a side building of the main colonial militia barracks used to house visiting Alliance soldiers.

The three were heading to Eden Prime, though for various reasons. Liara T'Soni was going to meet Javik there since he wanted to see what remained of his city again now that the war was over, and the two planned on investigating other prothean ruins for the book the two were going to write. James Vega was mostly just tagging along waiting to find out where the Systems Alliance would put him to earn his N7. And Ashley was going to visit the memorial there for the 212th now that the war was over, something she felt she owed to those fallen. The _Normandy_ was in for major repairs, much needed after the damage it sustained from the active Crucible, and Hackett had given all of its crew extended leave for their actions in the war.

"So," James asked from the exercise mat he was on, "What's the news? I'm assuming that's news you're reading..."

"Fifty-two more dead on Horizon. Too many diseases, not enough food and medicine." She answered with a sigh as she put the datapad down. "They're trying to get refugees off of Horizon and get the colony back to a level it's remaining agricultural infrastructure can handle, but getting it organized is a nightmare for the _SSV Brunswick_; too many refugees, too little time, not enough marines on board to go around policing."

"And Horizon's militia was gutted by the Collectors, then Cerberus, which makes local organization helping those people nothing more than a fantasy." Liara cut in with a shake of her head as she shut off her omni-tool. "And Hackett's plan for the _Normandy_'s new role isn't going to do much for that, at Horizon or elsewhere."

"No, it's not." James admitted as he continued his push ups on the mat, speaking between breaths, "But what can the three of us do? I mean, I know Scars is on Palaven helping where he can, but the turians don't need a poster boy. And the Migrant Fleet's had half of their vessels broken down, with Sparks overseeing a lot of the engineering." He grunted as he pushed himself up and stood. "We need marines and numbers, not elites like us to get things done. Grunt work's all that's left. Grunt work, engineering, and construction jobs. Stuff that the three of us aren't exactly hot at or able to make a serious dent into."

Liara answered him, leaning forward. "There are still pirates out there. Wrex has been rather busy stopping a lot of krogan who want to go raiding. And, Eve has proven an impressive force at making krogan culture evolve to truly embody the traits that the Krogan Monument was built to honor, but even that isn't enough to stop small and not-so-small packs of krogan going the way of most Terminus Systems mercenaries."

"I'm still surprised," Ashley admitted as she leaned over the table and grabbed the M-11 Suppressor that Liara had left on the table and favored carrying ever since the clone incident. Inspecting it, she found that the asari had kept the pistol in surprisingly mint condition, given she never had a proper course in weapons maintenance. "I mean, I never would've guessed that old krogan mercenary Wrex would turn out to be the krogan version of King Solomon."

"Probably not as wise as the original tale, but compared to most krogan warlords, yes..." Liara raised an eyebrow at her as she finished inspecting the pistol.

"'course, why do we still call Princess 'Eve'; I mean, doesn't she have a real name?" James asked, using the nickname he had given the krogan woman. Even he was not sure where that one had come from; all the other nicknames at least had something behind it.

"She never shared her real one, and that salarian; Mordin, right? He felt the comparison was apt since the _Normandy_'s a human ship." Ashley answered as she shrugged, passing the M-11 back to Liara. _I guess she favors a quiet pistol for her Shadow Broker job. Fits the personality or something..._ "Nice job maintaining the M-11, by the way."

"Thank you," Liara responded uncertainly, "I read more than a few manuals while on the _SR-1_, and I made sure I kept my weapons well maintained on Illium. I prefer biotics, but..."

The comment was cut off by the shrill sound of a klaxon alarm. Ashley and James reacted first, leaping up and turning respectively to sprint towards the weapons locker with Liara just behind them. Opening it to reveal their armor, they quickly outfitted themselves and grabbed their heavier weapons. Ashley grabbed her sniper rifle, an M-98 Widow and paused briefly as she looked at the weapon. _Belonged to a geth, then Shepard, and now you Williams…_ she thought with a sigh as she strapped it to her harness and began putting heat sinks into her M-76 Revenant.

"No heavier gun, Liara? I thought you carried an SMG." Vega asked as he strapped his AT-12 Raider shotgun to his back harness and primed his Revenant.

"I wasn't expecting a fight, and my biotics help more than a pistol variant," the asari answered hotly as she pulled her chestplate down. "Besides, less weight means more biotics."

Ashley smirked briefly as she watched Vega shrug, helmet in hand. "Come on, that's a raid siren. We're going to have..."

Before she could finish the sentence, there was an explosion and the window blew in. Ashley rolled to the side, dropping her helmet and bringing her rifle up, lining up a vorcha in the scope...

"Yous gives up loots!" the vorcha snarled before Ashley squeezed the trigger, riddling him with bullets as James opened fire likewise and Liara hit the vorcha with a biotic throw, hurling him out the window and into his partner.

"Pyro!" Vega shouted as he saw what the other vorcha was carrying and unloaded his rifle's underslung grenade launcher into it, detonating the vorcha's flame pack and sending him flying away in a carnage of flesh and flame.

"Good shot," Liara said with a nod. "Now, let's get out there!"

The three hurried outside of the prefab building and saw what was going on: several pirate fighters were flying around, buzzing the anti-aircraft emplacement as pirate Kodiak shuttles were rushing to touch down, several on an exit as their discharged cargo of vorcha, turian, and batarian raiders landed. The main militia group was at the edge of the town's main street where the pirates were landing, trying to suppress the pirates and stop them from getting any closer while several other militia members were trying to fight the pirates who had gone around and keep them from doing whatever havoc they were causing. Most of the pirates who had penetrated were, oddly enough, the vorcha.

"They must of hot dropped the vorcha!" James shouted before he leapt to the side as one of the fighters tried to strafe him, the rounds missing and shooting into the prefab building they had just exited. "And holy hell those pilots fly like them too!"

"We need to relieve the militia up front; they know these streets better than us and the pirates!" Ashley ordered, thinking back to the colonial drills she had ran after the Battle of the Citadel. "They can deal with the pirates back here, and we can hold the line!"

"Got it!" Liara answered as they sprinted forward. Two vorcha tried to block their approach, but Liara grabbed one with biotics and hurled him into the air while Vega charged the other one and smashed him into the wall. Ashley turned and saw one of the militia about to be gutted by a pair of vorcha with omniblades. Raising her rifle, she gunned both of the vorcha down before they could kill the knocked down militiaman before turning back towards the front. The militia were holding, but they were not going to last long against that many. Colonial militias were just not drilled nor trained well enough to deal with significant pirate raids.

"We'll hold here; deal with the pirates in town!" Ashley shouted as she and the other two came up to cover and she laid down suppressive fire towards the pirates. Several of the turians and batarians were caught off guard by the new arrivals, their shields bled away by her disruptor ammunition before James finished them. Meanwhile, Liara laid down a biotic singularity, forcing the pirates to scatter into what pieces of cover they could find, which was not much. One vorcha was caught in the singularity and lifted into the air, flailing wildly in the localized gravity well.

The militia leader looked at her curiously before nodding. "Alright, you heard the N7s! Get back and get those damn vorcha out of our homes and people to safety; they'll hold the line!" Liara raised an eyebrow at the nickname 'N7s' before turning her attention back to the fight at hand and hurled a biotic attack at the vorcha in the singularity, detonating it and launching the vorcha to the side.

Ashley nodded slowly as she switched weapons. "Vega, keep up the suppressive fire, and I mean that literally." The burly marine grinned widely as he made sure his incendiary ammo was loaded, spraying a volley into the vorcha with shotguns and heavy pistols trying to charge, only to be set on fire by the marine's spread of accelerated shrapnel. The vorcha began to dance as their flesh was burned away and regenerative abilities nullified before collapsing and beginning to slowly burn to ash.

"Liara, call out anything that Vega can't keep down. Otherwise, do your biotic thing." She noticed a shuttle in the distance and mentally marked it's ETA; half a minute for it to land.

Orders issued and the sniper rifle fully deployed, she leaned out of cover and aimed for the turian directing the attack, easily distinguished by his Tech Armor. The crosshair passed to his head and she took the shot. The shot went slightly wide, only skimming the side of his face rather than giving the walking bird a new hole, but the Tech Armor detonated as the shot burnt out all of his kinetic barriers and he was bleeding blue, hand on his face as he dropped into cover in pain.

"Get off!" James shouted as a vorcha tackled him, knocking his rifle away as Liara shot the other vorcha trying to leap over the barricade. He activated his omni-blade and decapitated the vorcha before pulling himself back up as Ashley released the expended heat sink and lined up another shot against an incoming krogan - _Where did that krogan come from!?_ She noticed the shuttle from earlier flying away on a vector that made it clear the krogan had just dropped from the shuttle without it landing. _Great, a krogan airdrop..._

"Krogan charging!" Liara warned as she hurled a biotic warp towards the incoming berzerker. Ashley grit her teeth; she hated fighting charging krogan. How many hearts, livers, genetalia, lungs, ribs, nervous systems, and stomachs did a single being need anyways? Liara began emptying her pistol into the krogan's head as Ashley fired the sniper rifle and dropped it to grab her assault rifle again. The sniper round hit the krogan's shoulder, but his barriers stopped the round.

"Oh no you don't," Vega said as he grabbed his shotgun, activated his armor's Foucault cell fortification system, and leapt forward towards the krogan. The impact of the mutual charge was punctuated by a pirate fighter, engines lost from the colonial anti-aircraft tower, crashing into a quarter squad of batarian and turian pirates and destroying them in an orange fireball.

The charge ended about as well as you would expect, but the fortification system in James' armor certainly did an admirable job keeping James intact as he stopped the krogan. The two collided, with the krogan pushing James to the side, but his stride had been completely broken and their crashing had caused James' kinetic barriers to fail and the krogan's armor to crack. That was all they needed as Ashley fired a concussion round from her rifle's underslung launcher, hitting the stalled krogan and causing him to stagger briefly. Liara hit the krogan with a biotic throw, knocking him onto his back, and then the last thing the krogan knew was a full thermal clip's worth of assault rifle and pistol rounds ripping into its body and destroying both primary, secondary, and even the occasional tertiary organ.

"Get James!" Liara called as she pistol whipped a vorcha trying to attack her before warping its head into something resembling uncooked Systems Alliance field rations with a biotic punch. Ashley nodded and leapt out of cover as she finished cycling the rifle's next thermal clip, laying down suppressive fire towards the two batarian pirates who seemed to be the tail end of the landing party. The two pirates ducked back into cover as she reached the crazy marine and grabbed a medi-gel shot from her belt and injected it into his neck with her omni-tool, helping him up.

"Thanks..." James groaned as he saw the batarian pirates and tackled her, pulling her down as a large spike shot past where her head had been and brushed against his shoulder guard, bleeding what kinetic barrier strength he had regained away. She recognized the spike immediately: a Kishock harpoon. Then she saw a biotic ball of energy that flew back towards the shooter over them, warping the cover it hit. Vega rolled to the side and grabbed his shotgun, sprinting towards the two batarians with his Foucault system reactivating as she followed spraying suppressive fire from the assault rifle, forcing the two batarians to stay down until she had to eject the thermal clip, but by that point it was too late for them as the two marines stormed their cover.

James crashed into the first one with the harpoon gun and eviscerated the batarian's head with a shotgun blast to all four eyes, but he received a heavy punch for his trouble that staggered him as the other batarian hit him with one of their omni-tool based enforcement gauntlets... until Ashley activated her own omni-blade and impaled him, blood splattering onto her armor as she pulled the searing hot silicon-carbide blade out of the now ex-pirate's chest.

"Clear!" Liara called from the barricade as the thunder of the anti-aircraft guns ceased. "Get back here you two; you need to hear this!"

The two hurried over, grabbing their dropped weapons once they reached the barricade as Liara activated her omni-tool to show a playback of a transmission.

"_Doctor T'Soni, there's another pirate squad... attempting to get to the anti-aircraft battery... pirate fighters withdrawing, but..."_ the transmission ended in static as they could barely make out another krogan in the transmission.

"What happened?" James asked worriedly as he was switching thermal clips.

"The pirates took the anti-aircraft battery." Ashley explained as she put two and two together. "But why withdraw the fighters?"

"I don't know, but we'll have more pirates coming soon. This came in when you were storming the last two pirates." Liara made sure her pistol had a fresh thermal clip as she nodded towards town. "Come on, we need to get that anti-aircraft gun online again."

The three moved through the town, ducking into a park as they saw a half squad of batarians and turians in pirate colors, all carrying assault rifles. Ashley activated one of her incendiary grenades and hurled it towards the pirates, forcing them to scatter and blasting one of the batarian pirates to the side as James finished him off with a burst from his rifle.

Liara grunted as her biotic barrier flashed from several assault rifle rounds before she hurled another biotic attack towards one of the turians, pulling him out of cover and he bounced along, leaving him open for Ashley to finish him off with a spread of shots to the head, leaving multiple holes and breaking part of the turian's fringe. James had meanwhile taken down two of the batarians with a well placed fragmentation grenade and the last two pirates, both batarian, retreated, only to run into a hail of bullets from one of the back alleys.

"Who did that?" James asked as the three broke cover and moved forward as several figures of human size exited a side alley where the now-dead pirates had fallen.

"The local militia," Liara answered as they made out the armor and the militia turned, six members total briefly raising rifles before lowering them.

"Oh, good. I take it the front's been held, Commander Williams, Lieutenant Vega?" One of the militia asked.

"The main landing group was taken out, yes, but the anti-air battery was taken." James answered. "So we're going to take it back."

The militia squad's leader nodded. "Alright. We got the vorcha running around and the people are in the safety bunkers; we're scouring for anyone we missed."

"Keep doing that and make sure those bunkers are safe, you'll do a better job than the three of us will. We'll get that AA tower back online." Ashley answered as she looked towards the sky. "And we better move, I think that pirate ship in orbit is about to send down a couple more shuttles!"

The two groups split, the trio of _Normandy_ ground team members towards the road that would lead straight to the colonial anti-aircraft battery while the militia went towards another residential area.

"Why do those pirates want to hit this place? I mean, what's so valuable here?" James asked as they vaulted over a knee-high fence.

"There is a science facility here that processes Element Zero." Liara suggested as she slid over, "Perhaps they want to use it for their weapons?"

"You don't need that much eezo for a gun, even a Widow or Cain." Ashley pointed out as she switched to her sniper rifle to make sure it had a fresh thermal clip. "Biotic amps, maybe..."

"That would give them a hell of an edge... heads up!" James shouted as the three ducked, another Kishock harpoon sailing over their heads and impaling itself into a colonial home's wall. Vega glanced over at the half dozen vorcha pirates guarding the AA battery and grit his teeth as he fingered a grenade. "Not enough range for the throw!"

"Let me help," Liara said, "Activate one of your grenades."

Ashley had lined up a shot with the sniper rifle, blowing one of the vorcha's central mass out and killing him as James hurled one of his fragmentation grenades. The grenade was suddenly surrounded with a blue aura of biotic energy and was flung further, detonating and blasting three of the vorcha away. James' cheer said it all even with his kinetic barrier flashing from the incoming heavy pistol fire. Ashley smirked as she switched thermal clips and took down another vorcha, with the last one running into the anti-aircraft tower.

"Outside clear; how many do you think are inside?" Ashley asked as she switched back to her assault rifle and James grabbed his shotgun.

"I'm not sure. There's at least one sniper with a Kishock, though." Liara said, "I believe he ducked back inside to let the vorcha take the heat."

"Let's hope that means four-eyes is out of ammo, then. Or clips." James said as the three put themselves next to the wall on the battery's closed door. "Okay, door's sealed from the inside, _Normandy_ hatch style. Doc?"

The asari nodded and stepped to the door, biotic energy glowing as she hit it with a biotic pulse, activating the inside controls with the door and it opened. Not as fine tuned as the _Normandy_'s, she did not need precision to open it. The vorcha that had fled inside earlier was right there, and whirled around with its shotgun and pulled the trigger. The shot caught Liara's biotic barrier and knocked her backwards, but Vega stepped into the doorway and fired his shotgun, blasting the vorcha backwards with a sizable, burning hole in his chest and continued to cook as it lay on the floor.

"Liara, you alright?" Ashley asked as she grabbed the asari's hand.

"I'm fine," she answered, taking the helping hand and getting back up. "Just winded."

"Alright, let's clear this AA battery!" James shouted as he reactivated his armor's fortification system and went in. Bullets shot towards him, but his reinforced armor and barriers held out as he pushed in and fired the shotgun to suppress the pirates before smashing those dumb enough to get in close with his fists and omni-blade strikes. Ashley and Liara followed him in, Ashley hurling an incendiary grenade into a pair of batarian pirates with assault rifles hiding behind crates, forcing them to leap out of cover and directly into a biotic warp that Liara created. _No barriers on these guys..._ Ashley noted as she shot both of the disoriented pirates and their warped armor.

"Who the hell are these guys?!" one of the turian pirates shouted as he ejected a thermal clip from his assault rifle.

"I dunno; fall back upstairs!" another turian shouted as she ran up the stairs to the controls. The other two pirates left followed, the last one being caught by a biotic pull courtesy of Liara and stomped dead by James as he rushed forward.

"Hah, pick on an innocent colony now eh?" He said with a smirk as he made sure the turian pirate was dead, faceplate broken by James' boot. "How d'ya like us humans now!"

"Keep sharp, Lieutenant." Ashley admonished as she checked the shot count on her rifle, "This isn't over yet. Up the stairs."

"Yes ma'am," James nodded when a blinking cylinder landed near them...

"_Grenade_!" all three shouted in unison as they dove in different directions. James towards the stairs, Ashley backwards, and Liara to the side as the grenade detonated into a blue pulse of energy that weakened their barriers. _Where did they get geth pulse grenades?_ She wondered.

"Aw shit!" James shouted as he dove back towards the other two, rounds bouncing off the floor plating behind him. "Damn it, lost my shields..."

"Hang back this time," Ashley ordered and nodded to Liara. "I'll take point."

Bracing herself for incoming bullets and pain, she charged up the stairs. Bullets rained down towards her and flashed against her barrier as she sprayed fire up, forcing some of the pirates to duck. She grunted as several rounds got past her barrier and embedded into her armor, but she had forced the breach and filled a batarian pirate with rounds at point blank as the other two turian pirates were taken down by a singularity from Liara and several close ranged shotgun blasts by James as he came up after the two.

"You alright LC?" He asked as Ashley forced herself to ignore the pain, reminding herself about the armor's self-sealing and could feel the smaller medi-gel injections already taking effect. _The miracles of modern armor..._

"I'm fine," she answered as she shook her leg experimentally. Pain, but nothing that called for a full medi-gel shot. The self-seal under her armor could take care of that and keep her from bleeding badly. "Now, let's make sure the rest of this place is clear and get that AA gun back..."

"Watch out!" Liara shouted and Ashley threw herself to the side as a krogan came out of seeming nowhere and charged towards Liara. The asari managed to dodge and Vega came up behind, firing his shotgun into the krogan's back for the rounds to only bleed out against the barrier and deal no damage.

_Shit, not good!_ Ashley thought as she brought her rifle around and opened fire, the disruptor rounds destroying the rest krogan's shields quickly. In this close quarters, they were going to get pulverized: she had seen Wrex's handiwork often enough to know that. The krogan turned, eyes glinting knowingly as he seemed to recognize her and charged right at her. She dove to the side, right into a corner and instantly regretted the decision as the krogan skidded his charge to halt and with an agility she never would have expected a krogan to have charged right into her, smashing her against the wall. Thoughts and sight exploding into a blur of color as she was crashed against the wall with more force than a human should have taken.

"Hahaha!" the krogan shouted, "I get to kill the great 'Commander' Shepard's parawho-"

He was interrupted by an omni-blade to the faceplate, but the krogan shrugged Ashley's desperate, instinctive attack off and headbutted her, blinding color exploding into blackness.

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"Ashley!" James shouted as he saw her collapse from the blow, "Hey, over here you fucking frog! Come and fight someone your own size!"

The krogan paused and laughed as Vega shot a blast at the krogan's back, which the armor shrugged off easily. "Hah! I just beat a Specter, so come on and die, pyjak!" He turned and charged again.

Remembering the last time he tried crashing into a charging krogan, James rolled to the side almost a second too late and the krogan crashed into the window, which took the hit and the krogan stumbled back, blasting James with his shotgun and knocking him backwards with the recoil, barriers mostly gone.

The krogan staggered forward as he was hit from the side with a biotic attack from Liara and the krogan snarled at the asari before charging again. Liara was quick, sliding down and hurling a biotic lift as James realized he was out of shotgun ammunition and switched to his assault rifle. The krogan went flying over Liara and bounced into the ceiling before crashing down into the floor as Liara came up behind him and hit him with a warp, weakening his armor.

"Not good!" James said as Liara came up next to him and he sprayed the krogan in the face with incendiary assault rifle ammunition, burning the krogan's armor. "This guy hits like me!" He glanced at the window and noticed the crack in it. _I wonder..._

The krogan charged again and the two split off, James firing away with the assault rifle while Liara hit him with a biotic push, knocking him into the window again which somehow held. _Shit, what's this made out of?_ The krogan turned towards James and charged again, seeming to forget that he was carrying a shotgun. James sprinted to the side as the krogan charged before turning away, the krogan briefly bouncing against the support beam before continuing after him.

"Liara, get a lift ready!" James called as he sprinted towards the cracked window. He was almost there when a sniper round sped past and hit the window, almost taking his head off and bleeding along his barriers. Ignoring it, he threw himself to the side as he heard the sweet sound of active biotics, and the krogan was caught in a blue glow and went flying through the window weakened by a Widow's round. Sir Isaac Newton did the rest as the krogan's momentum sent him screaming as he flew through the window and it finally shattered, with a loud thud at the end of his drop.

James and Liara walked to the edge and looked down at the krogan, who was crawling away slowly and bleeding along the ground, a small crater in the pavement where he landed.

"For the record," James called down to get his attention, "I'm an N7 candidate." He raised his assault rifle and emptied a full heat sink's worth of ammunition into the krogan, who did not get up on account of also being on fire from the incendiary munitions.

"Haha! See that I-" he paused as the rush of victory wore off and sprinted back to check on Ashley. She was up, propped against the wall with her sniper rifle in hand used like a crutch to prop her up.

"Nice idea... James..." she breathed out quietly, wincing in pain from a surprising amount of blood coming from her injuries. "Sorry... about the sniper round. I was aiming... for the krogan."

"That was you?" James said in surprise as he and Liara knelt down and he passed the asari some of his medi-gel, which Liara set to applying. He never pegged anyone as being able to make a good shot, even a miss, after being battered like that. "Damn, why haven't they made you an N7 yet?"

Ashley laughed faintly before a hacking cough took over as the medi-gel was applied, spitting out a spittle of blood. Liara stood and nodded.

"You'll be alright, Ashley, but we should get you to a hospital or a doctor." She looked at James before her could interrupt. "A real doctor. You should get looked at too, James."

"What? I'm... oh, right." He hunched his shoulders as he remembered his strategy on the earlier krogan.

"The AA gun, guys?" Ashley said. Liara's eyes widened and she sprinted over towards the controls, activating them and aligning the guns to defend the colony.

"So..." Ashley asked as she pushed herself back up as the medi-gel injections stopped the worst of her injuries. "What'd you think you were out there, an N7 vanguard?"

"Okay, look, I was just trying to keep the krogan from getting too close to you guys. I mean, I'm the one with the Foucault system in my armor." He considered the prospect, imagining the possible rush of a biotic charge and crashing into Brutes hard enough to take them down while _they_ were charging like krogan. "But, if I was a biotic..."

"The krogan have a surgical procedure to give biotic abilities." Liara chimed in as the anti-aircraft battery activated and fired at the landing pirate shuttles, which pulled out and desperately turned around. "A significant number of Battlemasters like Wrex got their abilities that way. Not Wrex, but others like him."

"Really?" James asked, intrigued as a knowing smirk crossed Ashley's face. He had a good amount of cash in his account since Shepard had been good about making sure they never blew their entire paychecks out on leave, and it was still good thanks to the volus and their effort at keeping the galactic economy at least functioning. Plus, he would now have time to train in such a new field. Besides, how much could the process hurt when compared to being bitch slapped into a telephone booth by a Brute during the final assault on Earth? The satisfaction of crashing headlong into the biggest bad guys out there and staggering them on impact was just too good to pass up. "Next time I'm on Tuchanka, I gotta..."

"Which had a ninety-five percent casualty rate, and was discontinued after the genophage specifically because of that." Liara added as if it was an offhand remark, one with which the asari had crushed his imagination.

"That's cruel, doc," James retorted with a sigh and realized how he had just been trolled, "just cruel."

"What about the militia?" Ashley asked as she walked over to one of the still sealed windows, medi-gel in full effect now. "How're they holding?"

"Hang on..." Liara said as she accessed the militia network. "Okay, it looks like all the pirates are gone. A few were caught stealing crates from the science facility, all element zero, but they were killed and the materials recovered. The militia took losses, though. At least eight dead, and they're counting wounded and civilians still."

"Well, we drove them back and inflicted several times the number. I think we came out on top."

"I don't think they expected us," Ashley pointed out as she grimaced, as if she was calculating just how badly the militia would have been beaten. "They weren't acting like a team expecting a Specter, a powerful asari biotic, and an N7 meatshield of a candidate to be here. They expected this to be a simple smash and grab against light opposition."

"Hey, I'm..." James smirked. "Okay, yeah, I'm the squad meatshield. But I look _good_ doing it!" He flexed his muscles with the biggest grin he could muster as his muscles began screaming at how sore they were. "Ow, ow... okay, I'm not charging krogan again."

"I should probably fly the shuttle, then." Liara said as the pirate ship fled the system as fast as its engines allowed it to. "Much as your flying has improved since Mars, Mister Vega."

"Oh _come on_…"

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Author's Notes:

* This one-shot was something I wrote to practice my Mass Effect writing when I was toying with a concept for a post ME3 fic, with the overall idea being to scale down from epic and go to more day-to-day. Sort of the 'tell the aftermath of the epic event' deal. I did this one to focus on getting a hang of Mass Effect's combat while still fitting in with the ideas I had. I hope you enjoyed it, however.

* Originally when I wrote this, I hoped to use it both as getting a hang of writing ME's combat, but also maybe to springboard it into a story involving Ashley, James, and Liara going after pirates who hunkered down during the Reaper War and are taking advantage of the post-war setting to do some things. No big Cerberus, no galactic warlord, just some mercs causing problems, sort of like some sidequests from the original Mass Effect.

* Finally, Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and Electronic Arts, and I own nothing. Well, okay, I own a copy of the Mass Effect Trilogy, but still...


End file.
